Since You've Been Away
by Meredith Trainor
Summary: Yuuri has left for a long time, and Wolfram finds himself spending more and more time in the company of another dark-haired Mazoku. What happens when it is not Yuuri who cheats, but Wolfram? And why won't the Great Sage bring Yuuri back? MurataxWolf


Since You've Been Away: A MuraWolf OneShot

Author's Note: I just thought Murata and Wolfram were such a good match, that there had to be more fiction about them. So I wrote some! Enjoy ;)

oOoOo(MK)oOoOo

"Yuuri!" Wolfram screamed, and I ran to the river's edge, where the Maou had just fallen in. I aimed to jump in, but a pair of hands wrapped around my waist and kept me back.

"Not you, too, DaiKenja!" He gave me a look I've never seen from Lord von Bielefeld before, and released me. "Bring him back, right now! Summon him from the other world!" His green eyes were flaming, and I knew I was in for a fight if I didn't at least try.

I closed my eyes, and Shinou appeared in my consciousness. "What do you want?" He asked curiously.

"Yuuri's gone to the other world, and his fiancée wants him back." I said listlessly, doing my best to conceal my eyes behind my reflective spectacles. The Original King was not fooled by my façade.

"But what do you want, Murata Ken?" He spoke as to a beloved child. I knew if I asked it of him, Yuuri would reappear at Wolfram's side. They would be together, and laughter would fill the air. But I would be alone, even in the midst of the bustling Blood Pledge Castle.

Alone, in the mornings, when I sought out Ulrike to talk to, to be my friend. Alone, in the afternoons, when I sought out Greta, for a playmate.

Alone, during the sleepless nights, when I hovered invisibly outside the window of Yuuri's living quarters. But it was not for the young Maou I watched every night. It was for the other figure, sleeping peacefully next to him.

"Ah, so you don't wish for Shibuya's return after all," Shinou summarized my thoughts.

"No," I admitted hollowly, "At least, not immediately. Maybe tomorrow?" The Original King shrugged, "I am not your servant. Make up your mind, DaiKenja!" He wasn't angry, just putting on an act. I didn't answer him.

Instead, I retreated into my inner mind, and reality settled around me.

"He's not coming back?" Wolfram's incredulity stunned me. Well, what did I expect—that he'd be content with just me, when he'd lost the Maou? I searched for the proper reply.

"Not just now, Shinou said. Yuuri has something to do before he returns to Shin Makoku," I lied easily, putting on a concerned face. Lying was the easy part. The hard part was watching that blonde head droop forward in desperation. I began to regret my decision. But I'd made my bed, and now I had to sleep in it.

oOoOo(W)oOoOo

_Dear Yuuri_, I wrote in my notebook, watching the page fill with black words,

_It has been twenty-three days now since you've been gone. I have written you twenty-two letters, which I will show you when and if you ever return. How I wish there was some way of communicating with you! How I wish I could tell you some things, ask you some others. For example, I would ask you if you planned to come home at all! Greta asks me that every day, "When is Yuuri coming home, Daddy?" It breaks my heart to hear our darling daughter talk like that. Partly because she voices my own fear_, I paused in mid-sentence, thinking carefully. Some things I would not, I could not write. I changed the comma to a period, and moved down a paragraph.

_We had a picnic yesterday. Conradt and Gunter were too busy, and big brother is such a pain I didn't invite him. But Anissina and Greta and DaiKenja and I went to a meadow just east of the castle wall, and ate strawberries with cream, and sandwiches. Greta and Anissina went looking for "extraordinary creatures", but Murata-san _…Why did I write his name like that? I crossed out the –san and thought again for a moment. Again, there were some things I did not want to tell Yuuri, fiancée or no. I resumed, _but Murata and I stayed behind. When it was nearly dusk, we returned, and had a quiet evening of reading and games before supper. _

Surely that was all I was required to say. I didn't have to tell him how DaiKenja had stayed behind to talk to me, and how we'd enjoyed a perfect afternoon in peace, with his hand on mine, listening to nonsense and whatever we wished to tell each other, before Anissina returned with Greta, and we quickly made as if nothing had happened. Surely I was not required to write that. I decided to end the letter right there. I couldn't bring myself to write, "Love, Wolfram," so instead I wrote,

_Your Fiancée, _

_Wolfram_

oOoOo(MK)oOoOo

I wondered why Wolfram still wrote to Yuuri. Nearly two months had passed since he'd left. Fifty days, and he still kept that notebook. It was nearly out of pages, so I went to town to buy him a new one. I knew Wolfram's favorite color was pink, a light rose color, so I found a brown leather-bound journal with pink pages. In a way, it was descriptive of the blonde Mazoku, rugged and masculine on the outside, soft and feminine on the inside.

On my way home, I was surprised to run into a stranger in a green cape. He'd been carrying a basket of figs, and as I bumped into him, they fell. We both bent down to pick them up, and I apologized, "Gome, gome!" He said nothing, but nodded, his face hidden under the hood. I felt my face flush scarlet, and I turned to leave. Surprisingly, he followed me. How many peasants went to Blood Pledge Castle? But it was none of my business.

I held the door open for the stranger, who bowed and then walked away, down the stairs to the kitchens, carrying the fig basket against one hip. A male kitchen maid? I was sure we had none of these in the castle. Against my better judgment, I followed him. Shortly before we came to the kitchen door, he stopped walking and gracefully set down the basket on the floor of the stairwell. From my position slightly higher than him, I couldn't see his face even when he removed his cape. But I'd recognize that blonde hair anywhere! The son of Cherie-sama, and Prince of Shin Makoku by engagement, Wolfram von Bielefeld possessed his mother's blonde curls and her breath-taking beauty. For a moment, I forgot myself and just stared. Then he spoke, still facing away from me.

"So it seems you've been stalking me, DaiKenja."

oOoOo(W)oOoOo

_Dear Yuuri,_

_Sixty-one days have passed since you returned to Earth, and I still write to you. Gunter cries like a baby with every mention of your name, and Conradt considers you dead. None of us can imagine why you'd cease to be King so suddenly, and for so long! Greta has stopped asking me her daily question: "When will Yuuri come home?" and to me, this is painful. I have no answer, from you or from myself. But I will write. _I clenched the pen tightly. _I filled up the last journal with letters to you, and so I begin to use the one Murata-san gave me. Yes, if you must know, I call him Murata-san, or even Ken-san in my thoughts now. It may be treason, but_… I inhaled deeply and pressed pen to paper with great resolve. _A lot has changed since you've been away. We're a lot closer, now, and I don't think of him just as a friend. Well, that may be cheating, but I cannot assume you are being faithful to me in Earth, where there are many girls of low morals._ I was getting angry now. _Yuuri, if you care about me at all, come home!_

_Your cheating fiancée,_

_Wolfram_

oOoOo(MK)oOoOo

For once, I slept. And when I slept, I dreamt. I dreamt of Shinou, the sly dog, standing on Yuuri's shoulder.

"I have indulged your fantasies for too long, DaiKenja. I need my Maou back in Shin Makoku." I nodded sullenly; I'd known this day would come. The Yuuri in my dreams looked confusedly between Shinou and myself. I could hear him thinking, "_What fantasies?_" I still had one favor to ask of the Original King.

"Let him come back, then, as you wish, Shinou Heika," I spoke sadly and with humility, "But grant me this last." He was interested, now.

"Erase the last sixty-two days. Let them be gone from his memory; you know who I refer to."

"Indeed, I do know. I will do as you ask, DaiKenja, my advisor. It shall be as you say. Now," he clapped his hands together and gestured to Yuuri, "take my chosen Maou home with you, to Shin Makoku where he belongs!"

And Yuuri, fascinated but confused, wondered quietly, "_What has happened since I've been away?_" But he was never to know.

oOoOo(W)oOoOo

"My book?" I asked stupidly of Murata Ken. "This brown thing? Why do you want it?"

"I know it's empty," he spoke evenly, as if teaching a child the alphabet, "but I believe it may be full of dark power. I wish to examine it for a while."

I shrugged. "As you wish. I don't even remember where I got it."

And for some reason, I saw the eyes of the Great Sage grow very upset as he took the book and walked out of my room. I would wonder, in the days to follow, why DaiKenja would not give back that book, why he always kept it with him, and why Yuuri seemed to think it had been almost two months since his departure, when he was only gone for one day!

[Fin.]


End file.
